The year-long and counting debate over the county’s planned repaving of Northwest 16th/23rd Avenue may now turn into a political battle over bicycle lanes. The current, preliminary plan approved by Commissioners Rodney Long, Mike Byerly and Paula DeLaney has drawn the ire of the Gainesville Tea Party, which is encouraging members to descend on next Tuesday’s County Commission meeting to voice their disgust.

The point of contention- a feature in the plan to narrow lane widths from the current 12 feet to a 10 foot-wide inside lane and 11 foot-wide lane outside lane with a three-foot wide paved should for bicycle traffic. A recent projection had the paved shoulder adding $600,000 to the cost of the project.

Here’s the “Patriot Alert” the Tea Party sent out:

URGENT!
ATTENTION PATRIOTS! WE NEED YOU!

The Alachua County Commission “taxing three” Delaney, Byerly and Long have once again ignored the majority of citizens that voiced their opinion AGAINST the narrowing of the lanes on 16th and 23th avenues in Gainesville at the public meeting. In a three to two vote the commissioners voted to narrow the auto lanes to an unsafe 11″ width and add an unsafe bicycle lane of 3″ width.

WE MUST ATTEND THE NEXT COMMISSION MEETING on Tuesday, January 25 to express the outrage that they would completely ignore the desires of the majority of the citizens and the residents that live and work along those avenues. Furthermore your tax dollars are being spent in the city to provide bicycle lanes for a very small number of residents when the money would be better spent on the repair of the aging and deteriorating county roads.

Each commission meeting starts at 5:00 with a segment devoted to commentary from the public on issues that are not on the agenda for that particular meeting. Because the commission has already voted this issue will not be on the agenda BUT we need to let them know that their actions are unacceptable. Please plan to step up to the microphone and say that you are a citizen that does not want those roads narrowed and that you are extremely dissatisfied that the desires of the majority were ignored. And where is the money going to come from to repair roads in the outlying areas? 16th and 23 avenue only need repaving; NOT re-structuring, costing millions more than necessary.

Keeping your remarks to one minute will allow a large number of citizens the opportunity to speak.

The commission meetings are held at the Alachua County Administration building at 12 S.E. Main Street in downtown Gainesville, Room 209, in the Jack Durrance Auditorium.

For those citizens that are not comfortable parking in the downtown area there will be a shuttle service available that will pick up at the Alachua County Republican Headquarters at 1210 N. Main Stree, (in the Publix Shopping Center). Headquarters will open at 4:00 and from there you will be transported to the Alachua County Administration building. Public speaking lasts for approximately one hour. The service will transport back to Headquarters. It will be available for longer if a citizen wishes to stay past the allotted time for public speaking.

PLEASE ATTEND! WE MUST LET THE “TAXING 3″ KNOW THAT WE DO NOT ACCEPT THEIR LEADERSHIP ON THIS ISSUE! We must fill the auditorium with patriots. Ignoring these issues will only encourage these commissioners to continue ignoring us! Send this to your friends and family!

About This Blog

County Lines and City Limits follows Gainesville and Alachua County politics and government from City Hall to the statehouse.

Morgan Watkins, a University of Florida grad, joined the Sun in August 2012 as its county government reporter. She keeps you updated on what’s happening inside county meetings and outside in local neighborhoods. If you think something might make a good story, let her know at morgan.watkins@gvillesun.com.